Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF RIZAL SYSTEM

Morong, Rizal

College of Education

Erica Faye L. Lozada Prof.

Rosa Portillo
BSE English Reflection Paper

Understanding Students with Special Needs

In Education

The goal of special education is to provide children with special needs

appropriate educational services within the mainstream of basic education. Studying
Foundations of Special/Inclusive Education will give the future educators the basic
knowledge that will help them in their future profession. It will provide some strategies
and methods that they may employ once they start teaching. It will also allow them to
have broader knowledge about children with special needs and may help them to
identify the proper approaches to give the children the highest possible education.
Understanding the learners with special needs give the teacher a closer look on what
should be addressed. The teacher will have a clearer view of the students’ strengths
and weaknesses which will be helpful for them to give the proper education that children
needed. They will also be able to know the right materials that they should use to teach
the learners with special needs.
There are four categories of children/persons with special needs namely:
physical which includes muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, chronic asthma,
epilepsy, etc; developmental which includes down syndrome, autism, dyslexia and other
processing disorders; behavioral/emotional which includes ADD, bipolarism,
oppositional defiance, etc.; and lastly, sensory impaired which includes blind, visually
impaired, deaf, and limited hearing. According to a video I’ve watched in Howcast
youtube channel, some of the symptoms of disorders may not be very obvious to the
parents and teachers. Though in the video, it states that if you suspect that a child is
having some type of unusual or atypical behavior patterns such as difficulty in sleeping
or sleeping too much, increased negative reactions to small situations, moodiness,
irritability and grouchiness, as well as being withdrawn or isolated, it’s imperative to
contact a clinical professional. Children with special needs aren’t likely to be easier to
teach than the regular students. In special education classrooms, teachers need to
apply some learning theories, so that students in SPED classrooms can get the most
out of their learning. Some of the theories that may apply to special education
classrooms are: Gestalt, Connection Theory, Component Display Theory, Gagne’s
Condition of Learning, Cognitive Load Theory, and Sign Learning Theory. The Gestalt
theory is good because it encompasses grouping, which may make it easier for
students. It is important to remember, however, that some connections may need to be
made for students both verbally and in application because all of the students in an
SPED class may not be able to connect the dots independently. The Cognitive Load
theory and Sign Learning theory discuss this thought of simplifying and perhaps drawing
lines to fully help students learn. A way to help connect the dots for some special
education students is the Connection theory. It is based on the students learning from
the cause-effect relationship of stimuli and response. Component Display Theory and
Conditions of Learning are based on including a variety of elements to learn from both
verbal and hands-on. They also discuss a similar structure that is helpful to follow during
the learning process.
Since children with special needs are different and learn differently, a traditional
teacher in an inclusive class may not direct his/her lessons at this minority group. It
shows the importance of having a wide knowledge regarding the needs of the learners.
Learning a strategy will never be enough especially in inclusive class, so teachers must
be equipped with different strategies that will cater all the types of students in the class.
It is also important that teachers know the disability of a learner for him/her to apply the
best approaches in her lessons. The teacher must be aware of the needs of the
learners and must avoid discriminating the students. A good teacher is the one who
addresses the needs of the learners and provide all the knowledge that will cultivate the
minds of his/her learners.